


To Get to Him You Go Through Me

by donutsweeper



Category: Killjoys (TV)
Genre: Family - Mother Mother, Flash Fic, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 16:17:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20212660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutsweeper/pseuds/donutsweeper
Summary: What starts as a quiet night at the Royale threatens to become anything but.





	To Get to Him You Go Through Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [radchaai (rigormorphis)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rigormorphis/gifts).

> Listen to "Family" by Mother Mother [here](http://youtu.be/oNtnALcr5JI).

Pree's seen a lot of things in his life. As a bartender you get a sense for people: who wants to be left alone, who needs a sympathetic ear or the kind of company a trip to the sexers upstairs provides, when to suggest a refill or when cut someone off, and, most importantly, who is going to be trouble. And on that last note....

For the last hour or so Pree has keep keeping an eye on John Jaquobis. Not because Johnny is trouble—if anything, he's the complete antithesis of it—but because he has a tendency to attract it. He's spent the time chatting amicably with two women at a table in the back, passing around a bottle of cheap hokk while discussing something about a Captain Apex, whom Pree had never heard of but apparently they all apparently had.

Johnny's partner in everything and everywhere _but_ the bedroom, Dutch, is sitting at her usual spot by the bar. She's claimed she likes it because it's the most comfortable stool and the best spot for keeping Pree company, but he was a warlord back in the day and knows a thing or two about sightlines and having one's back protected so he doesn't call her on it. 

Just then the door flings open in that combination of display of power and purposeful drawing of attention that just screams 'danger' and has Pree checking the location of the weapons under the bar. It's a pair of miners, two big bruisers who by looks alone might have been Pree's type before he was old enough to know better, but now he can see they'll never be anything other than trouble, and not the good kind. They scan the room for a moment before freezing in their tracks, anger flushing their faces as they stormed across the room.

Shit.

And, of course they head straight to Johnny's table. Of freaking course.

"Looks like your boy might be in some trouble there." There's no way Dutch hasn't already noticed the men or their intentions, but Pree has always thought it prudent to make sure of things like this. They're big enough, and look mean enough, to seriously hurt Johnny if they put their minds to it and Johnny's a friend so Pree doesn't want it to come to that. Also, blood stains are a bitch to get out.

"He'll be fine," she assures him, but she can't fool him, he can see how she's changed her stance on the stool so she'll be ready to move at a moment's notice. "Johnny's a big boy, Pree, he can handle things on his own."

Surprisingly, there's no yelling and thanks to the general hubbub and noise of the bar Pree can't tell exactly what's going on back there. At a guess, it's most likely that the women are the girlfriends or wives of the miners or just 'belong' to them in some way and the men aren't thrilled to find them sitting with another guy, even if there was nothing more going on other than them having a few drinks and a little conversation. Enough time passes that Pree's about to dismiss his worry as misplaced when Dutch springs up and is across the room before he can even register she's in motion.

A wicked looking knife clatters to the ground, followed immediately by the guy who'd pulled it and he's looking like he's not going to be moving any time soon. Dutch has one gun pressed to the other guy's head and a second to his crotch and whatever she whispers into his ear has him paling so fast Pree's almost worried he's going to pass out. He rallies enough to pick his companion up and the two have fled the Royale before most of the other patrons have even realized anything has even happened.

Dutch offers Johnny a quick, "You good?" and gets a soft smile and nod in response, before she scoops the knife off the floor and returns to her stool.

"Johnny can handle it, hmmmm?" Pree can't help it, he lives to tease.

"Oh, shut up and pour me a drink."


End file.
